Movie: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Man versus Machine

Plot Overview

“Mission: Impossible” began as a popular TV show in the 1960s, then in 1996 was made into a feature film. The series has gone on for almost three decades now culminating in “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” and now this one. Two months after retrieving the cruci­form key to the vault containing the source code for the malevolent artificial intelli­gence known as the Entity, IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) receives a plea from US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett). The Entity is continuing to infiltrate global media and is close to controlling global nuclear systems, aided by a sub rosa dooms­day cult. Rather than surrender the key as demanded he continues to pursue the Entity's former liaison Gabriel (Esai Morales). In London Ethan and a former thief-turned-IMF-agent Grace (Hayley Atwell) are captured by Gabriel. They escape and recruit Gabriel's former French lieutenant Paris (Pom Klemen­tieff) of questionable loyalty. Ethan is of a mind to retrieve the “Podkova” module, the “Rabbit's Foot” containing the Entity's source code in order to disable it. It is located inside the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol and combined with Gabriel's poison pill it would give one control over the Entity and of all human civili­zation. In familiar fashion the IMF team breaks into inter­locking companies to perform seemingly impossible tasks to thwart the evil plot.

Ideology

The “Mission Impossible” series succeeds in familiar territory such as mentioned by author Peter Rosegger: “Temperance, good air, physical exercise—even in cities these are recom­mended. Oh, yes, these are taught, but how often are they put into practice!” (103) Ethan sets a good example working out on a tread­mill. He'll be run­ning a lot. Before his deep dive he's given meticulous instruction on time limits at the sub, rate of ascent to prevent bends, and the necessary decom­pression chamber at the top. Yada, yada, yada, we've heard it all before. As for temperance, he keeps telling people, “You're spending too much time on the internet.”

As he's unseated from his biplane in a dog fight his opponent Gabriel mockingly yells, “ONLY ONE OF US HAS A PARA­CHUTE! GOOD LUCK!” A para­chute effects a temperate rate of descent, getting a person to the ground with­out him floating into obstacles sticking up, and landing him softly with­out breaking any bones. This is not shown in the movie: not its style and maybe no chute. What is shown is Nathan's tenacious grip on the planes as he employs keen gymnastics to work his way from one plane to the other on their out­sides. What he uses there is cool self-control, the meat and potatoes of Mission Impossible.

The same thing happens in the popular reading of our Bibles. The KJV of 1611 enjoined temperance in, Acts 24:25, 1Cor. 9:25, Gal. 5:23, Titus 1:7-8, Titus 2:2, and 2Peter 1:5-6. When the KJV was (needlessly in my opinion) updated by the ASV in 1900, temperance was left in. In his diary at about the turn of the 20th century, Orthodox Saint John of Kronstadt enjoined temperance. Temperance is part of the Catholic catechism as well. Never­the­less, it has been reinterpreted by many modern Bible translators as self-control so as not to confuse the common man who since Prohibition has come to regard temperance as applicable only to drink. My Concise Thesaurus has “sober adj. temperate. A person who is sober is not drunk. A temperate person exercises moderation and self- restraint and for that reason is unlikely to drink to excess.” (170) Modern Protestant Bibles such as RSV, NKJV, ESV, NIV now read “self-control” where they used to read “temperance.” Yet California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a March, 2024 interview extolled President Biden, saying: “We have American manufacturing coming back home, all because of Biden's wisdom, because of his temperance, his capacity to lead in a bipartisan manner—” Bipartisan leader­ship is by nature temperate. The Jubilee 2000 Bible still uses temperance. It's valid for more than drink.

According to Porter G. Perrin, Index to English: The Meaning of Words 3b. Synonyms. A synonym is a word of nearly the same meaning as another. … There are very few pairs of inter­change­able words. (192) And according to Fowler, “Synonyms, in the narrowest sense, are separate words whose meaning, both denotation & connotation, is so fully identical that one can always be substituted for the other with­out change in the effect of the sentence in which it is done. Whether any such perfect synonyms exist is doubtful.” According to Professor George P. Marsh in an 1859 post­graduate lecture on the English Bible of 1611: “Words and ideas are so inseparably connected, they become in a sense con­natural, that we cannot change the one without modifying the other. … A new translation of the Bible, there­fore, or an essential modification of the existing [KJV] version, is substantially a new book, a new Bible, another revelation.” (454)

The apostle Paul wrote that, (Gal. 5:22-23) “the fruit of the Spirit is … temperance: against such there is no law.” A good kid doesn't get grounded for temperate online activity, but pick­pocket Grace did time for her steel self-control. Ethan Hunt: “What separates a great pick­pocket from a good one?” Grace: “Timing.”

Production Values

“” (2025) was directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It was written by Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Ving Rhames. The acting was uniformly good except the Inuit in this fictional woke flick was a fish out of water. The female president was a mother needed for nurture to pull the plug on the nukes in a world provoked to conflict, while the macho sub commander confronting the Ruskies needed his bravado to “poke the bear.” Ving Rhames was miscast as Luther an oxlike tinkerer who would lack the fine motor skills needed for his projects. There was only one shot of him at it, a still, holding a soldering iron at an awkward angle.

MPA rated it PG–13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language. At 62 Cruise is still going strong, doing his own stunts. The franchise is in good form but I feel this is its final chapter. Runtime is a breathless 2 hours 49 minutes.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

A black female found it easier to be cast as president than did some real life candidates to get elected. They don't call it Mission Impossible for nothing. Anyone interested in seeing it has undoubtedly seen at least some of its predecessors so will be aware of what's coming.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.

Works Cited

Unless otherwise noted scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

Biden, Joe. Quoted from Jack Birle's article, “Gavin Newsom calls Biden's age a ‘gift’ rather than a liability.” In The Washington Examiner. Web.

Fowler, H.W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. USA: Oxford UP. 1946. Print.

Marsh, George P. “Disturbance of Formulas.”
       Lectures on the English Language. London: John Murray, 1863. Print.
       ——available to read or download at www.bibles.n7nz.org.

Perrin, Porter G. Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1939. Print.

The Right Word II. A Concise Thesaurus. Based on the New American Heritage Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1983. Print.

Sergieff, Archpriest John Iliytch. My Life in Christ. or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-Amendment, and Peace in God: Extracts from the diary of St. John of Kronstadt (Arch­priest John Iliytch Sergieff). Trans­lated with the author's sanction, from the Fourth and Supplemental Edition by E.E. Goulaeff. St. Peters­burg. Jordans­ville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 2000. Print.

Rosegger, Peter. The Earth and the Fullness Thereof. Copyright, 1902 by Frances E. Skinner. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902. Print.